Disney Princess Christmas: A Wonderful Time of Year
by bluethunder25
Summary: The Disney Princesses are back to celebrate the holidays, but their celebration may not last long as the evil Maleficent has a wicked plan to erase Christmas forever.
1. A Family's First Christmas

Yet again, the holidays had made their way to the frost covered Magic Kingdom on a cold, yet starry evening, the joyous sounds from children playing in the snow on Main Street USA, to the jingling of sleigh bells, could be heard. The smell of freshly baked Christmas cookies filled the air that was almost lit bright by the colorful Christmas lights strewn together on the buildings. Wreaths hung on every door, golden tinsel around every window, and giant noels and gingerbread men and houses decorated the stores.

And on this particular day of December, Christmas Eve to be exact, the citizens of Main Street were gathered in front of Cinderella Castle where the Disney Princesses, specifically Snow White, Ariel, Aurora, Cinderella, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Mulan, Tiana, and Rapunzel, in formal winter wear, stood on stage.

In front of their audience, the princesses sang.

* * *

**Snow White**

O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree

How lovely are your branches

**Cinderella**

O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree

How lovely are your branches

**Aurora**

In beauty green will always glow

**Ariel**

Through summer sun and winter snow

**Belle**

O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree

How lovely are your branches

**Jasmine**

O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree

Your beauty green will teach me

**Pocahontas**

O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree

Your beauty green will teach me

**Mulan**

That hope and love will ever be

**Tiana**

The way to joy and peace for me

**Rapunzel**

O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree

Your beauty green will teach me

**The Princesses**

O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree

Your boughs can teach a lesson

O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree

Your boughs can teach a lesson

That constant faith and hope sublime

Lend strength and comfort through all time

O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree

Your boughs can teach a lesson

* * *

The princesses took a bow as the audience applauded.

After the little holiday concert, everyone in the Magic Kingdom preceded with their holiday activities.

In Adventureland, Tarzan, Jane, Terk, Tantor, and the Professor strung lights and decorations on their tree house. In the Enchanted Tiki Room, the tiki birds were singing carols.

In Tomorrowland, the citizens put up a futuristic-looking Christmas tree. In Monstropolis, the monsters were also looking for trees. A monster picked the biggest one he could find. The salesman presented it to him and after paying him, the monster gulped it in one bite.

In Frontierland, Brer Bear and Brer Fox were chasing Brer Rabbit all over Chick-a-pin Hill. In the process, Brer Rabbit put decorations all over the hill until it was fully decorated. As Fox and Bear saw it, they couldn't help but stop to eye in awe along with Brer Rabbit. While they were distracted however, Brer Rabbit took the opportunity to run away.

At the holiday-decorated Haunted Mansion, the ghosts, along with Jack Skellington, Sally, Dr. Finklestein, and the rest of the inhabitants of Halloweentown had a jolly old Christmas party. Sally and Jack danced together while Oogie Boogie was guzzling down the eggnog.

And in Fantasyland, everyone, from the fairies of Pixie Hollow, to the Peter Pan and the Darling family, to Pooh and his friends, were deep in merriment.

Yes indeed, once again at this festive time of year, the residents of the Magic Kingdom were in celebration, even more so in particular this year. For tomorrow, Mickey had invited virtually all of the Magic Kingdom for the a big party that would culminate with a huge Christmas parade.

The princesses felt no different from the rest as they exited the castle and were met by their husbands.

"Jasmine, you and the girls were great!" Aladdin said after a kiss.

"Oh, you really think so?" asked Snow White.

"We know so," said Prince Charming.

As Rapunzel and Flynn hugged, Flynn dangled a piece of mistletoe over Rapunzel's head to which she responded with a long kiss.

"Oh, get a castle, you two!" Jasmine said.

Rapunzel responded with a tiny raspberry. Then, suddenly, she noticed something. "Hey, has anyone seen Merida?" she asked.

The other princesses and their husbands looked around and saw no sight of Merida anywhere.

"Well she did say she didn't really want to sing with us," said Belle.

"Merida did not want to sing with you?" Phillip asked.

"I'm sure she had a good reason. Too much turkey?" Snow White suggested.

"Yeah, Snow. She ate an entire turkey and got too full to come on stage and sing a song. Of course, being that it's Merida, that wouldn't be surprising," said Tiana.

The other princesses giggled at Tiana's comment.

"Listen, why don't you and the guys go on while we look for Merida," Pocahontas said.

"Of course," John Rolfe said.

With that, the guys went on their way, but not before Flynn and Rapunzel kissed some more under the mistletoe.

Tiana turned, saw this, and pulled on Rapunzel's hair. "Come on!" she said.

Figuring Merida must've been at home, they decided that was the first place they would look.

* * *

As much joy and happiness was spread throughout the kingdom, not everyplace was joyful. Such as the Forbidden Mountain, abode of Maleficent, the Mistress of All Evil, who observed the festivities from afar.

"Well, well, well. Mickey is throwing a Christmas party, is he? It should be quite the celebration, but how inconvenient that he failed to give me an invitation," she said.

Maleficent continued to observe the Christmas activities, seeing the beam in a person's eyes when they got a present from someone they cared about, the little children talking to their parents about Santa, the amount of happiness and the less of weariness, and was utterly disgusted.

"Such joy and wonder this holiday brings...and yet, I just don't feel the same way," said Maleficent. "Hmmmm, maybe I should give them a real reason to celebrate the holidays, by giving them a Christmas they won't soon forget...or maybe one...they will."

* * *

The princesses all arrived at Merida's castle by way of carriage and were somewhat shocked by what they had discovered. There were absolutely no Christmas decorations anywhere. No wreaths, no lights, not even the slightest bit of Christmas anywhere. They all got out of their carriages and Cinderella knocked on the front door.

Elinor and Fergus answered.

"Well hello there, you must be Merida's friends," Elinor said gleefully.

"Hello, Elinor. Merry Christmas," said Cinderella.

"Merry what?" Fergus asked.

"Merry Christmas," Cinderella repeated.

"What is Christmas?" asked Elinor.

"Christmas," Tiana answered. "You know, sleigh bells? Peace on Earth? Goodwill toward men?"

"That sounds gastly!" Fergus exclaimed.

"Fergus!" said Elinor.

"You've really never heard of Christmas?" asked Cinderella.

"No," Elinor answered.

This news was discouraging to the princesses. How could anyone not know of a wonderful time of year like Christmas? And then they began to think, if Merida's parents didn't know, maybe she didn't know what Christmas was either.

"Um...is Merida at home?" asked Cinderella.

"Yeah, she's out in the back, playing with her brothers" Fergus answered.

"May we go and see her?" Cinderella asked.

"Of course," answered Elinor.

* * *

In the back, Merida and her brothers were having a snowball fight. Merida hid in a trench on one while her brothers hid in one on another side. Both sides carefully eyed one another, making sure not to make the wrong move. Merida's brothers were each loaded with a snowball, ready to go on the attack while she was out of ammo. Slowly, she sidestepped to her right so not to draw any attention, but her brothers could spot her hair from a mile away. Realizing this, Merida rushed out of her trench. Avoiding a flurry of snowballs from her brothers, she managed to gather up a bunch of snowballs and launch them. What ensued afterwards was a back and forth snowball war.

Suddenly, Merida noticed the princesses coming and decided to play a trick on them as she stopped her brothers, brought them over to her, and whispered to them. As her friends approached, Merida quickly hid in her trench while the boys awaited them.

Snow White gasped at how cute they were.

"These must be Merida's brothers," said Belle.

"Well aren't you all just so cute," Snow White said as she patted the boys heads and pinched them on the cheek, much to their annoyance.

"But where's Merida?" asked Mulan.

"Her parents said she was out back," said Pocahontas.

"Maybe she went back inside," Cinderella suggested.

However, as the princesses turned around to go inside the castle, Merida popped out of the snow, growling like a beast and scaring them. She and her brothers laughed.

"Very funny," Tiana said sarcastically.

"Oh you should've seen the look on yer faces! AHAHAHA! Oh, Tiana, I can show you the look on yer face!" Merida said before she imitated Tiana. "So what can I do for ya?"

"We came here to see if you wanted to come to Mickey's Christmas party," said Cinderella.

"What's Christmas?" asked Merida.

Just as they thought.

"Merida, you don't know what Christmas is?" asked Belle.

"It sounds like that giant rash my dad was constantly scratching one time underneath his butt," said Merida.

"Well thank you for sharing that, girl," said Tiana with a cringe.

"Christmas is a holiday," said Aurora.

"Oh, my family doesn't really celebrate holidays," said Merida.

"You don't?" asked Cinderella.

"No. My mom was always too busy grooming me for the throne to worry about such things and my dad...well, he was busy hunting bears," Merida answered.

Rapunzel walked up to Merida with shock on her face. "So, you and your family have never heard of Christmas?" she asked.

"Not to our knowledge," Merida answered.

The very concept of a whole family who had never heard of Christmas, much less celebrate it, was befuddling to the princesses. Of course, they hadn't known Merida for too long, only over a year, so they didn't have much knowledge of what she did during this time of year. However, it wasn't too late for them to show her.

"Merida, how would you and your family like to spend Christmas Eve with us at your castle?" asked Rapunzel.

"Christmas Eve?" Merida asked.

Mulan walked up to her. "Yeah, we'll have decorations, a big tree, and we'll show you everything there is to know about Christmas," she said.

"Well I don't know..." Merida said with indifference.

The other princesses begged and pleaded with her. They wanted to give their friend and her family their first actual Christmas.

"Please, please, please," they all begged.

"Sure, why not," said Merida.

The elated princesses jumped with joy as they huddled up and hugged Merida tightly.

"Uh...guys...I can't breath..." said Merida.

* * *

A shopping trip and a knock on the door later, the princesses returned with a mountain full of decorations.

"Let's get started!" they all shouted before they entered the castle and the decorating began.

The princesses started by placing a series of red and green carpets across the floor.

Then, they decorated the fireplace with golden tinsel and stockings.

With Merida's help, they set the table with red tablecloth and lined it with decorated plates, holly, turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberries, Christmas pudding, candles, Christmas cookies, and all the trimmings.

Next, they set up a big tree with popcorn, lights, noels, tinsel, candy canes, and a big star on top, and placed a bunch of brightly wrapped presents underneath.

They also introduced Merida and her family to things of Christmas like eggnog, which they all quickly became addicted to and fought over. They also introduced them to things like mistletoe, exchanging presents, and 90% off sales at department stores.

Merida, her mother and father, as well as her brothers and even her two dogs, were given Santa Claus hats.

Eventually, Merida and her family were starting to get into the holiday spirit as they helped put up the rest of the decorations, including covering the whole outside of the castle with lights and the words 'Merry Christmas' in big, red letters. They were just having a good ole time, as good a time as they would've had shooting arrows or hunting bears.

When it was all done, the castle was as Christmas-y as you could get. Merida, her family, and her friends smiled at their work; her and her family especially. Their enthusiastic eyes glittered from the dozens of Christmas light strung together on their castle. This was the very first time they had celebrated the holiday and it was absolutely beautiful.

* * *

Meanwhile, in Toontown, Ludwig Von Drake was busy with Christmas plans of his own, as he was working on yet another new invention, singing merrily in the process.

"Oh jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way, oh what it is to make new devices on Christmas day...even though it's technically Christmas Eve, but you get the idea," Drake said to the audience.

After screwing in the last screw, Drake pulled the switch and watched as his new machine sparked with life. Without a doubt, this would be his greatest work yet. Then, from out of the machine came...a piece of fruitcake.

"Yes! My fruitcake machine is a success!" Drake proclaimed with joy as he took a bite of the fruitcake. "Mmmmmm."

But his celebration was cut of short as his laboratory was suddenly engulfed in flashing green flames and thunderbolts. He shivered in terror for he knew this could mean only one thing...Maleficent. And he was correct as the Mistress of All Evil appeared front of him and he nervously swallowed his fruitcake.

"Mr. Von Drake...I have a very...special...holiday...request..." Maleficent said as she slowly approached the duck scientist.


	2. An Altered Holiday

It was late on the night of Christmas Eve. The princesses and Merida's family should've been tired, but they were just having so much fun, they didn't even feel the slightest yawn.

Elinor and Fergus were engaged in an eggnog drinking contest in which Elinor easily defeated her husband.

Meanwhile, Ariel was introducing Merida to the concept of Christmas stockings.

"So let me get this straight, you hang a big red sock over the fireplace?" asked Merida.

"Well actually, it's called a stocking, but yeah!" Ariel said.

"But what if it catches on fire?" asked Merida.

"Oh, that never happens," Ariel said as she placed the stocking over the fireplace.

But as she did, a piece of fire sparked and hit the stocking, setting it on fire. Ariel chuckled nervously at Merida who looked at her with a curled lip.

Just then, Merida noticed Jasmine, Rapunzel, Belle, and Aurora placing presents underneath the Christmas tree and walked over to them.

"What are you guys doing?" Merida asked.

"We're just putting some presents under the tree," said Belle.

"It's a Christmas tradition," said Jasmine.

"But they will be even more when Santa comes tonight," said Rapunzel.

"Santa?" Merida asked curiously until she remembered. "Oh! You mean, the big fat guy in red!"

"Hey!" Fergus shouted as he drank more eggnog.

"Oh, not you, daddy," said Merida "So are you sure there's a Santa?"

"Yeah," Rapunzel answered. "In fact, we know him. We met him 3 years ago."

Tiana walked up to the discussion carrying more presents. "You see, Santa crashed landed in the Magic Kingdom and injured himself. Punz here was having trouble finding a gift for her man, Eugene, and she thought that if she and us could deliver the presents for him, Santa would help her find the perfect one."

Rapunzel continued, talking about their adventure, delivering all the presents on Christmas Eve and how she almost gave up, but then the Darling children reminded her about the true spirit of Christmas and with Santa's help, she ended up giving him a wonderful gift.

* * *

And on the subject of Santa, at the North Pole, in his workshop, his elves were hard at work, wrapping the last of the presents and loading them into the sleigh. Meanwhile, the big guy himself was busy checking his list a second time, putting a check next to the ones who are nice and an 'X' next to the one who are naughty.

"Hmmm, let's see...Johnathan Carter, nice; Tyrique Smith, nice; Robert Fred, naughty; Gregory Pearson, nice, Miley Cyrus...oh, very, very, very naughty," Santa said.

As he was continued to check his list, he made sure the all the preparations were in order.

The sleigh was polished and ready for flight, the final present was loaded, and the weather was clear. As Santa checked off more people on his list, it appeared everything was just about ready for his flight.

Mrs. Claus approached her husband with a hot cup of cocoa with marshmallows and a peck on the cheek. "Busy year again, huh?" she said sarcastically.

"No, actually no," Santa said.

"Really?" asked Mrs. Claus.

"Yes, everyone's been naughty this year, so all I have to put some coal under their tree and call it a night," Santa said before he and his wife shared a chuckle and he continued to check his list.

The atmosphere felt no brighter on this Christmas Eve and enthusiastic faces littered the workshop as it was almost time for Santa to be on his way. But the enthusiasm was soon broken up by a sudden crash of lightning.

"Is there a storm coming?" asked Mrs. Claus.

"Not that I know of. Check the radar!" Santa said to one of his elves.

The elf checked the weather system and saw no signs of upcoming storms. But that did not stop a massive dark cloud from forming over the North Pole. If there was in fact no forecasted storms, then why was there a storm happening.

The elves shivered in fear as the ominous cloud hovered over the workshop, its dark shadow engulfing it. The reindeer became uneasy and panicked.

Santa tried to put figure out what was going on, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it, until...

* * *

Merida was still a bit skeptical about the idea of a single man flying around the world, giving presents to people in just one night. At the same time though, she was rather curious about this holiday figure.

"Is there any chance we could meet him?" Merida asked.

"Actually, there is," Belle said. "Rapunzel, did it bring it with you?"

"Yep," Rapunzel answered.

"Bring what?" asked Merida.

Rapunzel rushed over to the bag of presents and from out of it, she pulled a glowing blue orb that had images of falling snowflakes inside.

"Woah! What is that?" Merida asked.

"Actually, I'm not really sure," Rapunzel answered.

"Santa gave it to us after we helped him," said Snow White. "He said we could use it to visit him whenever we wanted, but we've never really used it."

"Truth is, we're not really sure how it works," said Ariel.

"Well it's as good a time as any to find out!" said Merida.

"Well do you think your parents would mind?" asked Belle.

Merida turned to her parents who were still at war with their eggnog drinking contest. "I think they'll be fine. So let's go!" she said.

Seeing as how this was the very first time that the mysterious orb was about to be used, they were all of course pretty nervous. Rapunzel took a deep breath as she held the orb in her hands, seeing her nervous reflection.

"So how exactly do you work this thing?" Rapunzel said.

"Maybe you have to say the magic words," Snow White suggested. "Abra Cadabra!"

Nothing happened.

"Girl, nobody says 'Abra Cadabra' anymore," said Tiana.

"Well there has to be some magic phrase. It's not like we can just say, 'magic orb, please take us to the North Pole,'" said Snow White.

Suddenly, the mystic blow glow that emanated from the orb dimmed until it became a ghostly white color and disintegrated into dust. But that wasn't all that happened. All the decorations, the tinsel, the stocking, the lights, the presents, everything, one by one, all disappeared, much to the shocked eyes of the princesses and Merida's family.

"What's going on?!" said Pocahontas.

Within seconds, everything from top to bottom was gone. All that was left was a bare castle. This was a rather strange occurrence.

"What the Hail Mary just happened?!" asked Tiana in shock.

"All the decorations, the presents, the food, everything is gone!" said Merida.

"How could this all have happened!?" asked Belle.

"I don't know, but I guess we should go back to Main Street and get some more decorations," said Cinderella.

"I'll go with you," said Merida.

And with that, the princesses departed from the now Christmas-less castle and headed for Main Street, but upon arriving, the sight was no different from where they left from. Not a decoration could be seen, not a tree was hung, the sheer dullness of Main Street could rival that of the Forbidden Mountain.

"OK, I seriously doubt that everyone just decided to pack it in for the holidays," said Tiana.

"Something is wrong, very, very wrong," said Snow White.

Indeed something was wrong, for not only was it Main Street, but on the way, they saw that virtually ever section of the Magic Kingdom was bare of Christmas cheer. From Adventureland, to Fantasyland, New Orleans Square, Frontierland, Toontown, and Tomorrowland, not even the slightest bit of Christmas could be found. They couldn't even smell the freshly baked gingerbread cookies.

All this just did not add up.

"It's like everything just disappeared like magic," said Ariel.

And with that statement, Aurora came to a conclusion. "Magic?...Maleficent!" she proclaimed.

"This does look like something she would do," Cinderella.

Just then, a guilt-ridden Ludwig Von Drake approached the princesses. "I'm afraid it is," he said.

"Ludwig? Do you know what's happening?" Pocahontas asked Drake who had his head down in shame.

"Yes, and it's all my fault," said Drake.

"What do you mean?" asked Mulan.

* * *

At Ludwig's request, the princesses followed him back to his laboratory. Once there, he explained the situation to them.

"You built a time machine?!" said Mulan.

"And Maleficent used it to travel back in time?!" said Ariel.

"And now she is destroying the history of Christmas?!" said Snow White.

"Yep, that's pretty much it in a chestnut shell," said Ludwig. "I'm sorry. She scared me. What with her green skin and those horns...oh the horns! So...horny!"

"So, you just let the Mistress of All Evil intimidate you!?" Merida said.

"Wait, Merida," Aurora said.

"No, because of him, Christmas is ruined! And me and my family were starting love it!" said Merida.

"Maleficent is very intimidating and manipulative. It's easy for anyone to succumb to her. Believe me, I know better than anyone," said Aurora.

As Ludwig stared at Merida's disappointed face, he was even more wrought with guilt and knew he had to fix this.

As Belle looked over to Ludwig's time machine, an idea came to her mind, one that might be crazy enough to work. "Wait! What if we go back in time?" she said.

"WHAT?!" the other princesses said.

"Hold on, she might be on to something," said Ludwig. "You girls can travel back in time and undo everything that Maleficent has made coo coo."

Ludwig went over to the time machine and analyzed the period in which Maleficent had traveled. He discovered that she had in fact, made her way through multiple time periods and altered history in one or more ways. If the princesses were to bring back Christmas, they would have to piece back together its history brick by brick, starting at the very beginning. So with that, he input the coordinates for the time period in which they would travel; Bethlehem, 7-2 BC.

After that, he pulled the level on the machine which caused a swirling vortex to appear within it. As the princesses approached the vortex, Ludwig handed each of them a walkie-talkie just as he had done before. He explained that during their journey through time, he would serve as their guide and if they any questions, they should talk to him; since he was brushing up on his Christmas history.

Merida, still sore at Ludwig, didn't make much eye contact with him, but took the walkie-talkie anyway.

"Don't worry, she's just a little upset with you, but she'll get over it," Snow White said to a sulking Ludwig.

The princesses all stood in front of the portal and prepared to go in.

"Now remember, you must fix each event to restore Christmas," Ludwig said.

After a wish of good luck from Ludwig, the princesses all held hands and jumped into the portal, beginning what would be a time-traveling quest to restore the greatest time of they year and once again thwart Maleficent's plans.


End file.
